Welcome To Trump's America: Where ICE Agents Will Bring You To Heel With Electrified Gloves
The Trump Administration is making "cruel and unusual" their new goalpost.
In a nation where you can already reasonably expect to be shot in the street like a stray dog by masked goons playing American Gestapo, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now planning to outfit its agents with top-dollar, electrified gloves meant to deliver horrifically painful shocks to anyone they’re hoping to torture into compliance.
ICE is slated to drop upwards of $20 million on the purchase of thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” by March, per a new notice published by the Trump-era Department of Homeland Security. The G.L.O.V.E. devices — Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, manufactured by the Lexington, Kentucky Compliant Technologies LLC — are expected to be quite literally on the hands of immigration agents by March of next year. The horrendous devices have already been employed by some jails and police departments in recent years.
The Associated Press has reached out to both the Department of Homeland Security and Compliant Technologies. DHS claimed that it was working on a response and offered no immediate comment, while Compliant Technologies founder and CEO Jeff Niklaus said, “Unfortunately, we are unable to speak on this subject.”
Compliant Technologies has confirmed that the G.L.O.V.E. devices function and appear as a normal pair of patrol gloves. They feature a small switch that can be pressed by the wearing agent that will activate their electrical mode. When the switch is activated and the glove makes direct contact with a person’s skin, it will deliver a painful shock that Compliant Technologies brags will induce compliance among combative victims within seconds.
John Peters, president of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, who is personally studying the use of these gruesome devices, says, “It’s immediate and sharp, and it will distract you. I call it like a bee sting. If the officer is getting any type of resistance from the person, this is certainly an effective tool.”
Peters believes that ICE’s purchase will constitute the largest order for the company to date before going on to theorize that immigration agents will use the G.L.O.V.E. to remove combative subjects from cars and houses, as well as herding them in and out of detention facilities — bringing to mind a cattle prod, because that’s how we treat human beings under the reign of the Trump Administration.
ICE has a new game of fucked-up laser tag
Peters seems to believe that these devices will only be used as a humane tool: “For smaller officers or weaker officers or older officers, I think it has a great advantage,” resulting in faster takedowns with shorter, less physical confrontations.
Deputy Project Director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union, Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, along with the rest of us, is calling bullshit.
The manufacturer of the electrified glove device warns that their device is categorically not meant to be used as physical punishment against human beings who are simply exhibiting “verbal defiance or belligerence.” It is also not safe to use on high-risk individuals, such as children, pregnant people, or the elderly and disabled population.
But we all know damn good and well that this is shaping up to be ICE’s new game of fucked-up laser tag.
Borchetta warned the public that, as evidenced by immigration agents’ behavior thus far, we have absolutely no reason to trust or believe that ICE officers will use these gloves as anything less than a torture toy, openly questioning why such an inhumane device would ever be necessary for civil immigration enforcement.
“ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force. Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do,” Borchetta said. “Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public.”
So much cope
Compliant Technologies defends its product, stating that the devices have been safely utilized in situations where violent suspects are refusing to get into squad cars, inmates are harming themselves, or threats are being made against an officer. They are supposedly meant to be used only in very specific jail and transport situations, and not as a tool to broadly patrol the open streets.
Yet… Here we are.
Peters says he expects only a small number of immigration agents to misuse the painful devices, but claims they are unlikely to cause serious injuries or harm, as he notes the importance of a robust policy and training for any ICE agents utilizing the gloves. The manufacturer has claimed that officers will be required to complete a training course and recertification every two years to use the device.
But Peters’ rose-colored glasses frankly mean nothing when you’ve watched ICE agents quite literally execute humans in the street, verbally assault them with racial slurs, and openly, physically assault them without fear of consequence or accountability.
You really expect us to believe that taser gloves won’t be used like a schoolyard bully with a big stick?
Black ICE? WTF?